I have not had so many moths in a trap for at least 20 years. Last night at least 500 individuals, one piece of wine box packing had over 80 moths on it. I didn't really have much luck at micro moths as everything was being bashed about by Dark Arches and Dot Moths. I stayed up until 0215 this morning and I am glad I did because a few things were not really recognisable by dawn. The bats also had a good feast as I watched wings spin gently to the ground. My garden is a fair size so luckily I had plenty of options for tapping out the catch.
I think I had one new micro A.zoegana. I have an ermine to try to identify and a geometrid that wont open its wings.
A late Pale Tussock in good condition was a surprise. I found two new macros for the year, The Shark and The V-moth, the latter a new species for me.
Help required - I originally recorded this as The Campion but now wondering if I am right as the photo has increased the detail and contrast ?
The V-moth, a first
The Shark, perhaps my 3rd or 4th ever.
My ermine turned out to be Bird-cherry Ermine (nice and easy) although I haven't seen Bird Cherry around here. My closed wing Geom a very worn Dingy Shell, presume that mine wasn't being difficult and that they all sit upright for most of the time.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that the V-Moth is around this year. I haven't seen one yet but it's turned up here every year since 2015, always in July. I believe that the species is now classified as rare. I'm wondering what type of trap you use to accommodate 500 moths, 100 is a crowd in any of my traps!
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit like sardines, the trap is my own version of a Skinner. All of the half dozen egg boxes had on average 30+ moths and there were 11 boxes in the trap. The two wine packing trays had about 150 moths between them both. The trap had about 50 on the outside and about another 30 on the bed sheet. In fact I have just counted the moths in a picture I took of one outside wall of the trap and it has 17 individuals on it. Inside the trap there were another 80 on the walls and I forgot to count the ones on the celluloid and lighting arm. I didn't bother with the ones on the grass. My partner keeps finding moths that I transported into the house that had either landed on me, had gone down my shirt or up my shorts. So, 650 looks like a better estimated total. Bizarre evening.
ReplyDeleteThe first picture is a Lychnis, which is generally commoner than Campion. The two stigmata don’t join in Lychnis and the directions of the outermost zigzagging white line on the wing are different when scrutinised. It’s also much less pink.
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